


When a Child Stays Lost

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 13:59:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9388181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Ahsoka Tano, Force Sensitive child, isn't discovered on Shili in time to become a Jedi. But maybe the Force had a reason for that.





	

_17 years prior to the Fall of the Republic_

Raza Tano had made the decision that they continue their research. Kian Davri would have been happier to return to their kinfast, to have the child there, but Raza had been certain that they would lose too much headway in their work on how the arctic predators had adapted. The need to understand the prey and predator symbiosis of the frigid region was too potent to worry about such a small thing as where their child was born.

They only had a handful of others with them, specialists, though one was adapting well to the hunt. Between them, they could handle the birth, and the care of their small one, so Kian agreed. It was his first child, and he was very much in love with his partner. If she wished to continue, they would.

So it was that Kian spent much of the first year after the birth with their tiny one in a sling, snug against his body under the parka that was a concession to the brutal cold. Raza would feed her as needed, but she was the one more actively engaged in setting the observation points up, in trapping and banding the prey. If Kian had to be physically active, either hunting or helping Raza, he would let one of the others keep her, reluctantly.

The little one was over a year old, able to run, but accustomed to being held secure in the sling, before they did return to their kinfast's village. The elders inspected her, registering her as their child, and Raza named her, as was proper. Ahsoka Tano burned bright with energy, the elders said, yet their village was far from the city, and soon enough Raza and Kian were asked to bring their team to investigate a sickness in a herd, well out in the plains. It would be a long assignment again, and Kian was loathe to leave his delight with the village.

"So we take her," was Raza's decree, even as she encouraged Kian to try and kindle life with her again, their daughter sleeping for the time with Raza's elder child, a sturdy boy of four years. Kian smiled, and gave himself over to his huntress, pleased to know their child would stay with them, for now. Eventually, they would have to let her live among the kinfast, to make her own ties, but there would be time for that later.

+++

One assignment led to three, and Ahsoka learned to hide in the grasses so well that Kian sometimes had to call for her, often to be pounced by his bright star on his ankle or knee. She learned to climb the trees that were common to some of the areas they studied in. She learned to swim in shallow springs, though the deeper waters frightened her as they did many Togruta. She was growing adept in their language, and struggling to learn Basic, as the pitches needed for it were so low. 

The sling on the front became a pack on the back, but Kian made no complaint, as it meant his delight was close to him. Raza teased him sometimes for being quite the caretaker, but he was content to leave the fierceness to her.

Somewhere on the other side of the planet, a great Jedi visited their world while Ahsoka was learning to balance on one of the more docile herd beasts they were currently studying and helping recover from disease. Kian knew his daughter was uncanny in the ability to learn new skills, to never take injury from falls, but did not think to put that with the energy some of the elders of the kinfast had seen in her. Raza didn't think that maybe she should let her child be tested; the boy she had given to the kinfast was perfectly normal after all.

The great Jedi left, and life went on for a tiny Ahsoka Tano, raised in the wilds by her parents. If she never quite fit in with her kinfast, once she was of age to begin making her ties, who could blame her, as the child of wandering souls?

+++

A republic fell, an empire rose, but Shili mostly continued its day to day lives. They were just far enough off the main hyperspace routes to mostly be ignored. The planetary council drew its members back, invited the Kiros' Togruta to come home, and they closed their planet off, save Corvala, and paid lip service to the Empire as the current power in the galaxy.

In the wilds, a member of a respected kinfast lived a life not unlike an exile. Ahsoka Tano, huntress and bioscientist like her parents before her, was not officially proscribed by her kinfast, but she knew she was not welcome within the walls for more than short visits. Her tendency to stand out, to draw attention, was too unseemly. 

She also could do things that none of them could. While many of the elders knew by the time she was five that they should have sent her to Coruscant, to be trained like the great Jedi Shaak Ti, it was too late by that point. So she was tolerated, encouraged to focus on the spiritual side of their lives, to little avail. Growing up on the plains, she was drawn to the great beasts that were the life of Shili, whether they were prey or predator, much as her mother had been.

That her long hunts, often alone, for none ever caught her eye as a hunt-sibling or a love-mate (for more than a night, anyway), gave her time to explore the energy within her kept her from resenting that she was so different.

When she was seventeen, as the Empire was born, she found herself curled up in a cave, rocking herself as pain and loss flared through the energy that bound her to the galaxy. After that, Ahsoka remained alone more and more, always avoiding Corvala out of some instinct for self-preservation. Only slowly did word make it to her kinfast, where she heard it from her siblings, that the Jedi had been destroyed.

She left the village after that with enough supplies to remain gone for a month, even if she failed to hunt, to contemplate what that meant, and to reach out to the energy within for guidance. She, who could have been a Jedi, was now one of very few in the many worlds who could still touch the Force. Her path would lead her out into the Galaxy, learning from experience, from rare teachers she came across, but Shili was always home, where she would go when she needed to rest and heal.

+++

_The year the first Death Star is destroyed_

Chewbacca kept his bowcaster aimed at the Togruta approaching them, vaguely aware of the athleticism that carried a predator's grace, as well as the multiple knives visible and the staff on their back. He was wary; this planet was technically part of the Empire, and had a tight screen around the ships it allowed to land. He was made more nervous by the fact that other than the customs' inspector and the parts' dealer, no one had actually approached them as Han tried to get the Falcon back in the air.

A forced landing was never their first choice, but the hyperdrive had started leaking too much to ignore. At least the ship was in one piece.

"Hello," the Togruta called. Voice was higher pitched like a woman, but that was not always a real indicator. The being did appear to have the curves associated with humanoid women, but again, Chewbacca had seen enough to know that wasn't a safe sign either. He recalled what he knew of Togruta as a species, focusing on the horns. He thought these were curved in a way that were customary to the women of the species.

[Hello,] he said back, wary and inflected with cautious menace. The Togruta tipped her head to one side, then smiled, showing her teeth with care to not bare the sharpness of the canines. 

"I don't speak your language. May I wait for the human to return? I don't want any trouble or misunderstandings."

It was polite enough, and Chewbacca gave a nod, indicating the shade of the ship for her to sit.She did, settling with her legs folded in front of her, and closing her eyes as if at peace. Chewbacca decided that his impression of her being dangerous had merit at that… or that she was very possibly crazy. No one closed their eyes in an unfamiliar location and situation without one or the other being true.

Han got back with the parts on a null-grav sled most of an hour later, and took in the Togruta camped in the shade of his ship with annoyance. He looked at Chewie who shrugged and started getting the parts inside the ship, leaving Han to deal with the woman.

"What do you want?" he asked as she opened her eyes in response to being watched.

"To go with you."

"I'm not a cruiser captain. And I don't give free rides, and I don't need Imperial scrip," Han said. "You're wasting your time."

She unfolded, rising smoothly, and he noted that, with her montrals, she was taller than him. She wasn't wearing any blaster he could see, but there were more than enough weapons visible to make him consider her threat level at a high rating. 

"The Force tells me you can take me to the Bright Light that has come into the Galaxy. The Force says you know Hope."

Han felt his skin crawl with her words, recognizing the same weirdness Luke sometimes got with his hunches. "Look, kid—"

"I dare say I am older than you, sir," she interrupted evenly. "I must get to the Bright Light, Captain. He is at risk, without someone to help guide him in his journey."

"And how do I know this isn't some kind of Imperial trap for this hypothetical friend of mine?" Han demanded, even as his spine tensed, thinking of danger to Luke.

"I am asking, not compelling, for one," she said easily enough. "For another, my name is Ahsoka Tano, and I am no friend of the Empire."

Han's eyes went wide. He had heard that name. A phantom that struck at the Empire, leaving no trace. It was rumored Tano had destroyed more Inquisitors than any other insurgent, and none knew who the person was.

"Anyone could claim that," he scoffed weakly.

"They could. Claiming it to the captain of the _Millennium Falcon_ would be stupid, though. You may not be a bounty hunter, but that doesn't keep you from knowing someone who'd pay you a finder's fee."

"What if I do know this person you're speaking of? Why not go find him yourself? Why go through a middleman, who, as you said, might be interested in the finder's fee on one of the Empire's most wanted?"

Ahsoka smiled at him, calm and serene. "The Force told me you were the better option. Those he is with now, I am certain would go to any length to protect him, but they cannot protect him from the Sith. I may not even be able to do that, but I can at least help him learn what he is, before his power draws them in."

Having Luke in any kind of danger was terrifying enough. When Han had chosen to stick around, he'd more or less known he was giving up half his soul to the princess, and half to the kid. He didn't have the Force to guide him, but he had a solid gut feeling to go by.

It was urging him to trust her.

"I'll take you to a neutral point, see if he wants to meet with us. Then, if he does, you get to convince him you're the real deal. If he doesn't, you're on your own wherever we landed."

"That's fair enough, Captain. Now, would you like an extra pair of hands on your hyperdrive? I happen to be a mechanic when I'm not being all mysterious about the Force."

+++

If Han was nervous, Luke was overjoyed at the prospect of meeting a Force user. He had managed to break off from his duties with an explanation that he might be able to learn more Jedi skills. Now, having set down on a fairly primitive and sparsely populated planet, he watched the _Falcon_ open, revealing Han first… and then a being unlike any he had ever seen before descended the ramp. 

Tall and graceful, lean with an athletic life, horns rising above the head in blue and white patterns that matched the headtails hanging in front of the shoulders gave Luke an impression of artistic beauty. This was only enhanced by the white markings that adorned the dusky orange skin.

That the being was armed with visible knives and a staff was odd, to his way of thinking, having crystallized a notion in his head that lightsabers were part of being a Force user.

"You are the Bright Light I have seen in the Force," she said as she came to stand in front of him, forcing him to look up at her. "I am Ahsoka Tano."

"I'm Luke Skywalker," he introduced, as something about her settled along his nerves like a calming presence. She tipped her head a little.

"Skywalker? That name was once on lips everywhere, during the Droid War."

"Droid… you mean the Clone Wars?" Luke asked, even as he guided her over to the shade of some trees to sit, while Han watched and worried a little more from the ramp.

"Hmm. Seems it should be known for those who did more aggressively damaging things to the Republic, but then, I suspect the Empire is more the Separatist's legacy than anything of the Republic," she said. "I was a youth during the war, but my first trip off Shili, I heard of Skywalker. He had aided my people on Kiros," she said. "He was a Jedi. Are you of his blood or his clan?"

"His son, though I didn't know he was a Jedi until Ben Kenobi-- Obi-Wan Kenobi— told me about it."

"That is another name I know, who also helped my people at Kiros," Ahsoka said warmly, settling on the ground with her back to a tree. 

"You said you saw me in the Force; how? Is that common for Jedi? Is it something I will learn?" Luke asked her.

Ahsoka gave a shake of her head. "I am no Jedi. I was too old to go to the Temple by the time it was realized I should have been trained," she said. "But the Force has its own way; it meant that my people never lacked for a guardian, as I was not there to be executed when they were accused of leading a coup.

"And it is an accusation I do not believe, based on how the Empire treats people. The only coup that happened was in overthrowing the Republic for oppression and slavery," she said grimly.

"If you're not a Jedi, how do you use the Force?" Luke asked, and Ahsoka had to smile at him.

"Long before there were Jedi and Sith, the Force existed, Luke. Many who have access to it fall to corruption or madness without teachers, but sometimes… sometimes a Force Adept survives and figures out how to listen to the Force. That is what I am, a user of the Force, guided solely by it and my own ethics," she told him. "The Force wishes me to teach you, if you will accept me as a guide."

Luke broke into a smile that threatened to outshine the primary of this world. "Yes, please!"

+++

_Coda_

On Hoth, Vader tracked the snowspeeder pilot, not the vague trace of Force that was Leia, because there was a stronger trace with the pilot. In the ice of Hoth, a Togruta and her student dealt crippling injuries to the feared Sith Lord. Truths were uttered, and Ahsoka took her student away before his horror overcame him.

Bespin never happened, and while there was a trip to Dagobah, Luke learned more from an ancient being arguing with a young one than he could have learned from one alone. Every trap Vader set after Hoth was fruitless, as the huntress was not one to let her student fall into a battle on a location he had not chosen, not alone.

The Emperor's trap, though, was one they could not avoid, as the Force told them they had to be there. And, with a heavy heart, Ahsoka accepted that it was Luke's fight alone to make. Nor did she chide him for his hope to redeem Vader, only reminding him that sometimes freedom could only be found in dying.

She was waiting for him, when he came back to her, waiting to help him heal… and to work with him, as equals, on finding the New Order that the Force sang of in the absence of the Emperor's stranglehold on the galaxy.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at [Dreamwidth](http://sharpest-asp.dreamwidth.org/) or [Tumblr](http://bow-weaver.tumblr.com/) if you ever want to make a request.


End file.
